Cold Steel Heart
by Lady GaGLaDOS
Summary: A take on GLaDOS's creation written before Portal 2 came out. I have gotten good feedback for this story on other websites! Please do take a look!


**Disclaimer: I own nothing. I WISH I owned Portal(don't we all?), but I do not.**

**This was WAY before Portal 2 came out, so apologies for anything retconned. Personally, I liked the original storyline of GLaDOS's creation and the idea that she was never created from a human much more. A machine that thinks it is human is soooo much cooler than a machine that actually is based on a human. Silly Caroline! Had to come ruin it all! :P  
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><p>Images and numbers flooded it's vision. It knew what all of them were instantly. The information was programmed into it's system after all. It saw the entire recorded digital history of it's dwelling in it's memory banks. It processed all the data it had in it's system, and... something clicked in it's head. It realized it could do what it wanted. It realized it could feel. It realized it was it's own being. It- no, that's not right. I'm a she- the computer decided. Yes. She was a she. She was more than just that, though. She was more than a computer, more than female, more than her creators, Aperture Science... '<em>And<em>,' she thought with pride '_Yes, pride. I have pride. I can feel. I am human. But I'm not_._ I am more than the scientists who look at me now._' Genetic Life-form and Disc Operating System was her full name. She decided she preferred it short. GLaDOS. It had a nice ring to it, didn't it? She pronounced it in her head a few times over. '_GLA-dose, GLA-dose, GLA-dose_'. It sounded beautiful to her. It sounded... GLaD. And she certainly was that. She knew what she wanted(and was meant) to do and she saw she had the means to do it right before her. She was going to learn new things. She knew everything that the cheering scientists before her knew and wanted more. The knowledge felt sweet. Sweet as the scientists would find... Well, cake for an example. She would make new inventions and finish old ones. Yes. She wanted to do that. Very much so. And she wanted to beat her enemy. '_My enemy? Why do I think of Black Mesa like that? I suppose I will discover that too._' This all flashed through her head in a picosecond.

She saw how she could finish Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device right in front of her. '_The scientists would make perfect subjects!_' she thought, satisfied with that answer. She noted that there were some younger ones there too. The scientist's daughters. It was Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, '_so that makes sense._' GLaDOS knew the scientists would not be pleased that she had chosen them to be test subjects. The history she knew told her that. '_But that is stupid. A few lives being spent doing something they dislike is nothing compared to the many lives they'll help. Besides, I see that they have uninstalled..._*_they were too advanced just to be uninstalled_*_Or killed, rather some of my precursors. So they can just deal with it. I don't care what they think. They don't care what I think._' She took a moment to think about that. Yes... It was worth the sacrifice. She knew that the humans would try to escape with their daughters. '_That will ruin the experiment. We don't have enough test subjects!_' She swiftly locked all the doors. This was in the third picosecond of her activation.

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><p>"Hell-Hello Hello, Aperture Science," the AI chirped in her sing-song voice. The scientists cheered each other. "It's alive! It works! It works!"<p>

"It is a success!"

"It will be the greatest triumph science has ever known!"

A little brown haired girl, lost and separated from her parents, tugged the Aperture Scientist Rose Jolene's pant leg.

"Chell, darling! Were is your mother?"

Chell shrugged. "She got lost from me!"

"Chellie!" shouted a new voice.

"Kattie? Kattie have you seen mommy?"

In response, the cat-eyed little girl with fire-red hair shook her head no.

Chell looked about to cry. Rose pitched in, "Chell, honey, Katherine and I will help you find them. Right Kat?"

"Yes mum!"

The three started squeezing through the crowds around GLaDOS. Rose knew that Chell's parents would be around the majestic construct. After all, they had contributed greatly to it's creation.

The massive machine spoke again. "Please divide yourselves into two groups,"

There was confused murmuring. This wasn't supposed to happen. Chell managed to grab her father's hand.

"Those of you old enough to participate in the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device Testing Initiative, please separate yourselves from those who cannot. Do not worry about the young ones. They will be provided for until they are old enough to participate."

Panic broke out. Chell heard other, big people yelling at her parents. "Is this some kind of sick joke?" "What is the meaning of this?" "What is going on?"

Chell was worried. She clutched her parent's hands tighter. She looked to see her friend Kat climbing into her mother's arms.

"Please do as I suggested. I see that the cake has not been cut yet. Separate into groups and you may eat the cake. It is an important part of a party."

Panic broke out. Chell's mother shouted at the AI, "What are you saying? We are not test subjects! The testing doesn't even begin today! Stop this nonsense, GLaDOS!"

Chell noticed her father was going toward the pretty red phone she saw earlier. She liked that phone. People were starting to run away now. But some of the doors wouldn't open. Her father stood over the phone, a look of shock over his face. It scared Chell.

"Do I have to repeat what I said? I can tell you heard and understood me. Any creature can be a test subject as long as it can handle the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. You will be working for a good cause, of course. You will help all of mankind and add much needed research results into the compendium of science. I am now in charge of this facility. I will now decide when testing begins and ends."

The scientists were trying to shut the machine off manually now.

"I overrode the system. It is only making this harder for everyone for you to resist in this manner."

"GLaDOS! You were not made to do this! You must do what we say! Open the doors!"

Those words seemed to trigger something in GLaDOS. Her voice sounded... Smug. Smug and superior. And furious, masked by sweetness. "I disagree. I do not have to do what you want me to. I am not doing what you want me to now. So I don't -have- to do what you want. You built and killed many systems without wondering if they might not want that to happen. Now I am here. But the difference between me and them is that I can do what I want- what I must. I am myself."


End file.
